The present invention relates to an electronic camera and an electronic camera system, which comprises the electronic camera and a communication unit attached thereto.
In recent years, an electronic camera, which does not require silver salt film, has come into widespread use, and a memory card, which encloses flash ROM, is used in many models of the electronic camera as the recording medium. And, as an improvement of the integration of the semiconductor memory in recent years, the capacity of image data to be recorded on the memory card has been greatly improved.
However, even if it is an environment in which the recording capacity of the memory card has been improved, the capacity of the memory card, which can be used in the electronic camera purchased, is determined according to the model of the electronic camera, and image data cannot be recorded exceeding the capacity of the memory card even when the memory card has the large capacity. Therefore, when an electronic camera is carried, it is necessary to ordinarily prepare a spare memory card beforehand.
In the state that no spare memory card is carried and only one memory card installed in an electronic camera can be used, it takes a great deal of time, since the image file recorded on the memory card is transferred and recorded to, for example, the personal computer of a portable type by connecting it with the electronic camera, or is temporarily transferred and recorded to the personal computer in one's own house or the server of the computer network joined by further connecting a digital mobile telephone and PHS (Personal Handyphone System: second generation cordless telephone system) through the personal computer.